TEMPLE TERRACE - Some of the most impressive planned improvements for the Temple Terrace Family Recreation Center can be summed up in four words.
Let there be light.
A flood of light streaming into what is now a cavernous and rather gloomy gymnasium will stand out as one of the more dramatic new features of the renovated center.
The solid decorative arches along the outside of the building will become windows, so that people working out in the new fitness center will be able to see the outdoors.
Officials broke ground June 28 on a $2.6 million renovation of the popular center whose substantial face-lift is expected to be complete by next spring.
"It's really going to be a new building when it's done,'' said Karl Langefeld, Leisure Services director.
The fitness center will have a ground floor and an open mezzanine floor above, where most of the cardio machines - treadmills, exercise bikes and such - will be located. The weight-lifting machines and free weights will occupy the ground floor.
The new dance studio will take up part of the current gymnasium's space, separated from the fitness center by a permanent wall. It will also have a moveable wall inside the studio.
Langefeld, for one, will be happy to be able to walk around inside the building without getting wet. "We have leaks in the roof all over the place.'' A new roof is included in the work, along with a new paint job inside and outside.
And while the fitness buffs are supposed to sweat, the building itself isn't - but does. Langefeld said on hot days following a spell of cold weather, condensation forms on the walls in the breezeways and drips to form puddles on the floor. Non-skid tiles dot the floor to help prevent slips and falls. Enclosing and air-conditioning the open areas will solve the problem.
No longer will parents who are dropping off and picking up kids have to endure the traffic jam at the building's front driveway. A new road will take them to a turnaround in the back, north side of the building. Adjacent to it will be a covered patio area with picnic tables and ceiling fans where kids can wait to be picked up.''
Two outside basketball courts will be taken out for the driveway and turn-around, leaving one outside half-court and two courts inside the west wing of the building.
The back wall of the gymnastics center will be moved north to make room for a regulation length vault runway.
Now, parents cluster in front of the window off the lobby to watch their children practice gymnastics. The windows will be expanded along the front wall and east wall, which will be an enclosed space with benches to accommodate more parents.
Ramps will be installed and other accommodations updated to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, he said.
Bathrooms are being renovated with new tile, paint and fixtures, and both men's and women's locker rooms will have individual changing and showering stalls.
"One of the challenges we face in our bathrooms now is that they are a 1970s-era bathroom design, which is gang changing areas, gang showers. That's all going away.''
The pool will be shut down during the slow season, late fall, while the locker rooms are redone.
Plans for the project have been in the works for nearly five years, and budgeting for it has been a concern all along, Langefeld said.
"We have a council now that sees this as a priority. They're all on board.''
Indeed, the vote to approve the contract with Bandes Construction was unanimous.
City Manager Charles Stephenson told the council that $1.4 million of the total cost will come out of the current fiscal year's budget; the remainder will come out of the budget for fiscal year 2018-19, which begins Oct. 1.
Contact Philip Morgan at pmorgan@tampabay.com.